1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to packaging of smoking articles and provides a pack for such articles, as well as a pack charged with them. It relates to a pack in which cigarettes are positioned with their axes parallel to the axis of a hinge of a lid of the pack.
2. Description of the Prior Art
DE-A-3345586 shows a proposal for such a pack. Cigarettes are held in a pack parallel to a hinge axis between its halves and which when opened exposes the interior of both halves to the user. Both may contain cigarettes. An open inner frame is provided which as drawn in FIG. 4 would prevent opening or closing of the pack. See also the multi-part hinged pack disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,344,008.
There are also packs in which the charge of cigarettes is held in a drawer-like inner slide part which moves in a shell outer in directions perpendicular to the axis of the cigarettes. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,080,227, 4,534,463 and GB-A-285778. However, it is a feature common to all these that an end wall of the drawer forms the closure to the pack and there is no hinged lid.
Cigarette shoulder boxes are described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,763,779 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,570,790. These boxes comprise a box portion and a hinged lid connected to the box portion along an axis of articulation. The axis of articulation is normally along an edge of a longitudinal side wall of the box or is a fold line which is located parallel to the edge of the box, the fold-line usually being in the middle of the width of the side panel. The enclosed articles are held within the box which is uncovered upon articulation of the lid about the fold line. These boxes do not require an enclosure as their upper surface is open when the box articulated along the fold line.
The pack of the present invention has a conformation which externally resembles that of a conventional xe2x80x9cflip-topxe2x80x9d pack. In such packs, however, it is conventional for the smoking article such as cigars, cigarettes, or cigarillos (hereinafter referred to for convenience as xe2x80x9ccigarettesxe2x80x9d) to be presented with their long axes i.e. the axis of the cylindrical body perpendicular to the axis of the hinge. When the top is opened by rotation about the hinge line what the user sees is the circular ends of the array of cigarettes and these cigarettes can be removed from the pack by movement along their axis, perpendicular to the hinge axis, and usually in a region towards the centre of the width of the pack. Usually in a flip-top box the major axis of the pack as a whole is parallel to the axes of the cigarettes contained in it.
In the present invention the pack is adapted to receive a charge of cigarettes which have their axes parallel to the axis of the hinge of the lid of the pack, and has a liner portion of the pack partially enclosing the charge of cigarettes and preventing sideways escape from the pack but offering an actual or potential access opening for the removal of a cigarette from the pack in a direction generally parallel to the hinge axis, when the lid is open, in a region adjacent to one side of the pack.
The present invention provides a pack for smoking articles which have an axis of elongation, the pack being a container having a body and a lid hinged to the body about a hinge axis parallel to that of the smoking articles, the hinge axis being located in the plane or very closely adjacent to the plane of a major front or rear panel of the body and a liner located within the body, the liner forming an enclosure for the articles, characterised in that the enclosure is formed of front, rear, side and base walls of the liner, and projects from one side of the body to be closable by the lid in a closed position of the lid but accessible in an opened position of the lid, the enclosure enclosing the articles but offering an access opening for the removal of a smoking article from the pack in a direction generally parallel to the hinge axis.